What Is Spirulina?
Candy made with algae? It sounds like your kids’ worst nightmare, but they might already be eating it.
Spirulina gives these sprinkles their blue hue!
Photography by Getty Images
Scan the ingredients list of your kids' favorite sweets, and you might spot spirulina. This vitamin-packed blue-green algae has been sold in health food stores for years, but the FDA approved it for use as a food dye. Its bright-blue color is rare in nature—and highly prized by food companies. Soon it may even show up in M&M’s: The brand is testing spirulina in their blue candy coating, after pledging to cut artificial colors by 2021. Go blue!
